I would say the worst thing about Meniere’s Disease/BPPV is never knowing when an attack is going to hit. I think as a victim of this chronic disease we try to blame anything and everything on an attack, I ate too much salt last night, I stressed to much today, I did not get enough sleep – but the reality is sometimes an attack just hits because that is a characteristic of this disease. Over the past six months, I have had few ups, and many, many downs.
While at my ENT appointment on Tuesday (January 7, 2014) my physician instructed me to start avoiding CATS. Of course the first thing I thought was I have four of them how am I suppose to do that and what do they have to do with my current symptoms? He went on to explain that eliminating Caffeine, Alcohol, Tension and Sodium from my life would do wonders to help control my symptoms. OMG I thought this man is insane I live on caffeine and sodium and I never have a day that I do not suffer from tension, the illness itself is stressful each and every day.
Of course the first thing I did was come home and finish off a 2 liter bottle of Mt Dew convincing myself that if I didn't drink it would be wasted and once it is gone I will not be tempted. Then off course I decided that I would have all the other bad things I can no longer have, one last day of CATS to get it out of my system! About the only thing this thinking accomplished was making my symptoms worse, which resulting in me falling (January 8, 2014) on the way back from the bathroom and thinking I had broken my wrist. Thank goodness the wrist is not broken just painful and bruised.
So today I woke up and decided to start making the changes in my life, though I think teaching a pig to fly would be a much easier task. I have had zero caffeine today, no table salt and stayed below my set 1,500 milligrams of sodium. Tension/Stress well lets just say I am trying, but sitting and dwelling on having a needle shoved into your ear is stressful unfortunately and I do not see that changing until after the procedure is accomplished and then I have to stress about missing work, loss of income, being unable to pay bills, how to stay afloat while not getting paid while out on medical leave (head explodes).